Apple Disappoints: No Jobs or Big News at Macworld

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Apple’s announcements of a slimmer 17” laptop and plans to drop DRM by the end of the quarter doesn’t seem to be making anyone happy. To be honest, without Steve Jobs at Macworld, I doubt anything they say is going to make anyone happy.

Apple Inc said on Tuesday it was dropping copy protection from songs sold on the Internet and debuted its slimmest 17-inch laptop yet, but with no dramatic products or master pitchman Steve Jobs, the company's final Macworld performance disappointed Wall Street.
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FYI, we didn't make the headline and we know that everything Apple does is being overshadowed by Jobs' health. They could pull diamonds out of their ass today and still "disappoint" the market. It's a tough crowd.
 
One would think they'd want to go out in a big way. Oh well, what more can you expect from Apple..
 
So it's never been about the products after all. It's all about Jobs worshiping. Cult indeed! ;-)
 
Steve Jobs died of boredom.

Seriously though, nothing new outside of the expected iLife/iWork updates and the 17" notebook that is part of the new unibody Macbook line that was only released two months ago. No Mini update (almost two years guys!) is a huge disappointment. Apple are clearly through with Macworld; they're going to announce products on their own timeline. Same reason I expect game developers grew to hate E3: they have to the product/demo ready for this arbitrary show date.

Also, I totally called it yesterday. Well, on the stock at least, updates outside of the 17" obviously never happened. Great shorting opportunity between the highs of the morning and the close after the show. Too bad the market volatility from last year made me swear off news-based gambling. :)

Originally Posted by Bambi005
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=aapl&d=t

Apparently the market does, as it has gone up to 94 since i last saw it at 88 and rising.
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Serpico said:
Take this as a setup for the likely hit the stock is going to take tomorrow. When the only news is on what the market expects (great Mac sales for the previous year/updates to existing products like the iMac), look out below. Combine this with the fact that the overall market in the neartern is very overbought on extremely low volume. Everything is due for a nearterm pull-in, and Apple will come in with it.

I'm not putting money on it either way, but I'd be putting odds on a negative day tomorrow.
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BloodyIron said:
No DRM? WHHOOO, now if only itunes didn't suck...
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That's why we have Amazon mp3.

Its also why I still buy CDs, I'd still rather do my own encoding. Amazon mp3 is great but meh to mp3 unless its a podcast; high bitrate AAC or lossless for me.
 
Another over priced laptop for the Apple cult to blow their money on. Microsoft at the CES will be more interesting.
 
Serpico said:
Steve Jobs died of boredom.

Seriously though, nothing new outside of the expected iLife/iWork updates and the 17" notebook that is part of the new unibody Macbook line that was only released two months ago. No Mini update (almost two years guys!) is a huge disappointment. Apple are clearly through with Macworld; they're going to announce products on their own timeline. Same reason I expect game developers grew to hate E3: they have to the product/demo ready for this arbitrary show date.

Also, I totally called it yesterday. Well, on the stock at least, updates outside of the 17" obviously never happened. Great shorting opportunity between the highs of the morning and the close after the show. Too bad the market volatility from last year made me swear off news-based gambling. :)
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I don't think the "arbitrary show date" had anything to do with E3. It was its size. That is why they replaced it with E for Everyone. Or whatever name they came up with. E3 started off small, and ever year kept get larger and larger and larger till it got to the point where people were spending million upon million upon millions for booths larger than most people's houses to show off their stuff. So they cut back on booth babes and started giving booth limits hoping to bring it back to what it was meant to be. E3 moved away from being about the products to being about how you present them.
 
Did you guys hear about the $.30 DRM removal fee if you want to "upgrade" your existing library?

I'm sorry but paying a third again the cost of your music to fix a problem that should have never existed and get a better bitrate that should have been provided in the first place is a pretty stunning crock IMO. That could be as much as hundreds of dollars for people who have a lot of itunes stuff, and the price of a few new albums for someone with a moderate amount.

It still blows my my mind that people think Apple is somehow less evil than other tech companies. :confused:
 
enlightenedby42 said:
Did you guys hear about the $.30 DRM removal fee if you want to "upgrade" your existing library?

I'm sorry but paying a third again the cost of your music to fix a problem that should have never existed and get a better bitrate that should have been provided in the first place is a pretty stunning crock IMO. That could be as much as hundreds of dollars for people who have a lot of itunes stuff, and the price of a few new albums for someone with a moderate amount.

It still blows my my mind that people think Apple is somehow less evil than other tech companies. :confused:
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Anyone who knows what they're talking about will agree that Apple is more evil than other tech companies.
 
Serpico said:
That's why we have Amazon mp3.

Its also why I still buy CDs, I'd still rather do my own encoding. Amazon mp3 is great but meh to mp3 unless its a podcast; high bitrate AAC or lossless for me.
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i feel you. i only get 320k mp3 anymore at minimum. 192 is my lowest i can go without noticing much... but when i can i just go FLAC. i hope that format becomes the standard someday....
 
Exavior said:
I don't think the "arbitrary show date" had anything to do with E3. It was its size. That is why they replaced it with E for Everyone. Or whatever name they came up with. E3 started off small, and ever year kept get larger and larger and larger till it got to the point where people were spending million upon million upon millions for booths larger than most people's houses to show off their stuff. So they cut back on booth babes and started giving booth limits hoping to bring it back to what it was meant to be. E3 moved away from being about the products to being about how you present them.
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This is way OT, but you kind of missed my point. Game developers would diverge for weeks off of their main development track in order to get an E3 demonstration up and going. Nobody liked doing this. Combine it with the fact that giving out news via the internet has driven trade shows such as E3, Macworld, and soon I suspect CES, closer to obsolescence. Why be forces to release something around a trade show when giving out news to a very wide audience is so easy now?

The proof is in the fact that major major corporations have been bailing out of these conventions for years now. They're expensive, they force them to adhere to the timing of the convention, and they get in the way of internal development. Why cater your own schedule around a convention that you depend on to get your message out, when it is much cheaper and easier to just get the message out on your own now?
 
They could always put a shiny metal casing on something, coupled with a touchscreen and call it "groundbreaking"!!!!
Always seems to have worked for the Cult before.

Like some sort of touchscreen screwdriver comes to mind...
 
SixtyWattMan said:
A notebook with a non-replaceable battery? COUNT ME IN!
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They had me at eight hours battery life with a five year lifespan (wow, especially compared to the 2 hours/2 years tops you'll get out of any other battery on a 17", let alone the 3-4 hours max you'll typically get out of a big 9-cell battery on a 15" Dell or HP), but they lost me at non user replaceable. I've never once swapped out the battery on a notebook I've owned, but I can see how it would be a good option for some people, especially pros who work out in the field a lot. Maybe the long battery life makes up for it, I dunno, but its such a radical shift for a high end notebook, eh...

They made the battery replaceable in the rest of the Macbook line, why not this? The only logical reason I can think of is that the battery must be this massive flat piece. I'll be curious to see teardowns later this month.

Imagine if they could make a replaceable battery on this, sixteen hours without having to plug in...
 
BladeVenom said:
The big news is the Macbook Wheel. :)
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary
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Saw it a few days ago, this just about killed me:

KMF5AFEh5idhnayt4x71xtDoo1_500.jpg


The aardvark asked for a dagger.

The abortion went well.

OMFG hilarious
 
I think the most exciting thing about this Macworld was watching MacRumorsLive get hacked by 4Chan.

Seriously though, where is the Mini update?
 
looking forward to the iRack and the iRan.... ;)

they should just play that madTV clip for MacWorld...
 
I don't think the the battery and how thin it is is worth the $1000+ over a PC equivalent. Other Macbooks are mediocre deals at best but this one is just completely insane.
 
Anyone notice they had a lot of celebrities in the audience, and the camera happened to land on them whenever the crowd was shown?
 
Serpico said:
They had me at eight hours battery life with a five year lifespan (wow, especially compared to the 2 hours/2 years tops you'll get out of any other battery on a 17", let alone the 3-4 hours max you'll typically get out of a big 9-cell battery on a 15" Dell or HP), but they lost me at non user replaceable. I've never once swapped out the battery on a notebook I've owned, but I can see how it would be a good option for some people, especially pros who work out in the field a lot. Maybe the long battery life makes up for it, I dunno, but its such a radical shift for a high end notebook, eh...

They made the battery replaceable in the rest of the Macbook line, why not this? The only logical reason I can think of is that the battery must be this massive flat piece. I'll be curious to see teardowns later this month.

Imagine if they could make a replaceable battery on this, sixteen hours without having to plug in...
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I agree with you whole-heartedly. When one thinks about it, Apple is basically forcing you to 'upgrade' in 5 years. Granted a lot of people do, but I feel it should be the option of the end user how long they own a machine for, and being able to swap out parts to keep it going is imperative to this plan.
 
enlightenedby42 said:
Did you guys hear about the $.30 DRM removal fee if you want to "upgrade" your existing library?
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The thing a lot of people haven't heard about yet... is that it's $0.30 for each DRM'ed track and that if you upgrade your library, it has to be ALL OR NOTHING.

Meaning... ALL DRM'ed tracks that you have purchased have to be upgraded and paid for if you choose to get the DRM free versions. You can't pick and choose. All of them. Or none of them. I expect to see a lot of stories coming up in the near future about the sticker shock of the cost to unlock one's collection.
 
Yeah I dunno about that whole 7/8 hour battery life. I mean what about the iphone 3G is twice as fast bit - definately taking that one with a grain of salt, unless you want to sit at your laptop with the brightness all the way down without doing anything involving processing power or using the backlight keyboard or optical drive. THEN you're good without needing to replace the battery...form should follow function, not the other way around - I can see how that's fine with the air, but this can conceivably be someones only workstation (which may be portable).
 
SixtyWattMan said:
I don't think the the battery and how thin it is is worth the $1000+ over a PC equivalent. Other Macbooks are mediocre deals at best but this one is just completely insane.
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Yep, that's why you and me are not Apple zealots. ;-)

The faithful will fork over the bucks for the ultra-thin super big laptop... it's stylish... it's hip... it's fashion... and honestly IMHO better than spending $3000 on a purse.
 
techrat said:
The thing a lot of people haven't heard about yet... is that it's $0.30 for each DRM'ed track and that if you upgrade your library, it has to be ALL OR NOTHING.

Meaning... ALL DRM'ed tracks that you have purchased have to be upgraded and paid for if you choose to get the DRM free versions. You can't pick and choose. All of them. Or none of them. I expect to see a lot of stories coming up in the near future about the sticker shock of the cost to unlock one's collection.
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That's why I never bought into DRM. I went with my personal belief (And obviously many other people are going this way too) that I'd rather pay more money for something that doesn't have DRM crap stuck on it, to where I can copy MY music how I want.
 
Version_3 said:
I agree with you whole-heartedly. When one thinks about it, Apple is basically forcing you to 'upgrade' in 5 years. Granted a lot of people do, but I feel it should be the option of the end user how long they own a machine for, and being able to swap out parts to keep it going is imperative to this plan.
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FWIW, if it is anything like the Macbook Air battery replacement, it isn't going to cost any more than just buying a second battery, labor and parts all in. My main concern has to do with not being able to swap out a battery while you own it. I've never swapped out a battery in the whole time I've ever owned notebooks, but for some people I'm sure its a nice option to have. Then again, 8 hour battery life may just negate the need for a second battery. Why carry two batteries that carry a four hour charge when you've got one eight hour battery built into the machine? Even if you're stuck without airline seat power, that more than covers something like a flight from London to Paris with the notebook on and cranking the whole time. Its just such a weird thing to have a non-replaceable battery in a pro-level notebook, I dunno...

vsboxerboy said:
Yeah I dunno about that whole 7/8 hour battery life. I mean what about the iphone 3G is twice as fast bit - definately taking that one with a grain of salt, unless you want to sit at your laptop with the brightness all the way down without doing anything involving processing power or using the backlight keyboard or optical drive. THEN you're good without needing to replace the battery...form should follow function, not the other way around - I can see how that's fine with the air, but this can conceivably be someones only workstation (which may be portable).
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Battery life on my 15" MBP is excellent, definitely inside the advertised specs with wifi, keyboard backlighting, etc on (if I'm running Vista desktop with its poorer power management or playing an FPS like Team Fortress 2 or Left 4 Dead, different story obviously, but I'm always plugged in for that stuff anyways). I'll have to get a new battery in another year or two based on how fast li-ion batteries go bad, but a year's use and its still really good.

I'm completely agreed with you on non-swappability based on this model being a pro workstation. Let's face it, the main people who buy a 17" Macbook Pro outside of gadgethounds who like to buy too much machine are professionals: video editors and photographers. I dunno, maybe the option to swap out a battery in the field would be a good thing? :( Well, at least they're not doomed to glossy screens like the rest of the current Macbooks are...

Again, can't wait to see the teardowns on this thing and get a look at how big the battery actually is.
 
vsboxerboy said:
Yeah I dunno about that whole 7/8 hour battery life. I mean what about the iphone 3G is twice as fast bit - definately taking that one with a grain of salt, unless you want to sit at your laptop with the brightness all the way down without doing anything involving processing power or using the backlight keyboard or optical drive. THEN you're good without needing to replace the battery...form should follow function, not the other way around - I can see how that's fine with the air, but this can conceivably be someones only workstation (which may be portable).
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My 3G gets about 3-4 times faster speeds than my 2G iphone did.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

look at how they designed the battery, makes sense
 
I find it funny that Apple angles most of it's marketing off the basis that Macs are "fun" and PCs are "work", then goes and rambles on about iWork spreadsheets and word processing.
 
Azhar said:
So it's never been about the products after all. It's all about Jobs worshiping. Cult indeed! ;-)
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If there were reliable rumors that Steve Balmer had pancreatic cancer in the news today, you just see what Microsoft's stock would do in response ... and then you can pretend to know what you're talking about.
 
finalgt said:
If there were reliable rumors that Steve Balmer had pancreatic cancer in the news today, you just see what Microsoft's stock would do in response ... and then you can pretend to know what you're talking about.
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MS stock wouldn't nosedive. If anything it would go up because somebody better then Ballmer might take charge. ;)

OT though MacWorld was a huge disappointment but then again it was expected.
 
finalgt said:
If there were reliable rumors that Steve Balmer had pancreatic cancer in the news today, you just see what Microsoft's stock would do in response ... and then you can pretend to know what you're talking about.
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Hi, look up joke in the dictionary. While you're at it, get that stick out of your rear.
 
GuiltyDragon said:
I find it funny that Apple angles most of it's marketing off the basis that Macs are "fun" and PCs are "work", then goes and rambles on about iWork spreadsheets and word processing.
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Does it run Crysis? No!

Vermillion said:
MS stock wouldn't nosedive. If anything it would go up because somebody better then Ballmer might take charge. ;)
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:)

Microsoft is a behemoth. They've structured themselves to avoid any single person bringing the company down. Bill Gates transitioned himself out and you didn't see Microsoft's fans tanking the stock because the company would collapse.
Jobs has a deathgrip on Apple. Even if he willingly steps down (not due to medical reasons) they would take a huge hit.
 
Yeah, I was at least expecting an iTunes subscription program announcement. That's the only thing that will take me back from AmazonMP3.
 
Nice 17-incher for sure... umm.....

But STARTING at $2,799?? Man, who has that much money for one of those things? Especially when Windows laptops are getting CHEAPER with more bang, such as Gateway and Asus laptops around the $1,000 equipped with 9800m graphics and comparable specs... really, ALL that these MBP's have are longer battery life, a cool body, and OS X. Those are definitely pluses and I would enjoy having one, but for 3 times the price?

I wish I was hip enough to afford one of those things...
 
Can you point me to one of those Gateway or Asus computers that have better specs than the Macbook Pro 17"? More ram, processor and hard drive space for under $2700? I don't mind about a the battery.
 
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